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Replies to: Easy Scholarships

There's a reason why there aren't any easy scholarships. If there were such, then a gazillion kids would start applying and then voila....no more easy scholarship.

The truth is that most private entities don't really have much motivation to be funding scholarships unless they have some kind of interest in it..

I hope other kids who think that they can pay for college with outside scholarships read this thread. Most private scholarships are for FROSH year only, are very hard to get, have a "need" component, and are for small amounts. So, they may help with the cost of books for frosh year, but that's it.

The best scholarships are for INCOMING freshman and are given by COLLEGES for all FOUR years. With the right stats, those can actually be the easiest to get.

Since you're a senior, you need to be applying to the SCHOOLs that give scholarships....

What are your stats?

What state are you in?

What is your major?

How much merit scholarship money do you need? How much will your parents pay?

I see that you're applying to both NYU and Tufts. If you have the stats for Tufts, then you have the stats for very good merit scholarships from other schools.

As you probably know, NYU gives lousy aid, so unless you have tippy top stats, your family can expect to pay most/all costs there.

Tufts doesn't give merit scholarships, so your aid would be need-based after looking at both parents' income and assets (and if they're divorced, then their spouses' finances also.).

It's ok to apply to dream schools, but always protect yourself by also applying to a few safety schools...schools that you know FOR SURE that you have ALL costs covered by ASSURED grants/scholarships and/or family funds.

I always recommend that students fill out the questionnaire at FastWeb (Fastweb : Scholarships, Financial Aid, Student Loans and Colleges). This will generate a list of all scholarships for which you might be eligible. Then you can go through the requirements to see which ones look "easy' to apply for. "Easy" usually translates into "No essays or other major hoops to jump through," but sometimes an essay topic may call out to you and seem easy (especially if it's one you wrote your junior history paper on last fall).

Although it can seem onerous to apply for scholarships that you feel pessimistic about actually getting, I urge students to take this perspective:

Let's say you spend 20 hours filling out scholarship applications, and you land one scholarship for $500, that may seem like a lot of work for little reward, but it still comes out to 25 bucks an hour, which is pretty darn good for most teenagers.

But, as mom2collegekids as wisely pointed out, any student who is in the running at a hyper-selective place like Tufts should be able to land a nice merit award at a less selective college.

With some exceptions, the best scholarships usually come from the colleges themselves. So your time would be well spent researching colleges that might have merit dough for you.

College Confidential's SuperMatch search engine (College Search - College Confidential) allows you to select "I'm interested in schools where I would be well above average, to increase my financial aid opportunities" (under the "My Scores" heading). You then enter your other preferences in the SuperMatch questionnaire (for size, location, academics, campus climate, etc.) and see which places come up on the Results lists. You can also play around with the preferences to generate different options.

My daughter was very fortunate to earn two very nice renewable scholarships, as well as several scholarships for incoming freshman. Your best bet is to apply for every local scholarship that you meet the criteria for. Concentrate your efforts first on local, then state, then regional and national. Also look for scholarships that are limited in scope, my daughter was awarded one based on her ancestry. It is a lot of work!

My daughter and I made a spreadsheet with all the scholarships she planned to apply for, their criteria, deadline and essay topic. We sorted them by deadline, and noted which other scholarships the essay could be used for or tweaked to fit. She spent almost every Sunday from mid Nov. through March working on scholarship applications. She missed out on some excellent scholarships that had earlier deadlines because she started so late, but she was a recruited athlete doing official visits in the fall, as well as competing. My daughter had very good results and her first year at a very expensive private university was fully funded by her scholarships. Good luck to you!

My daughter had very good results and her first year at a very expensive private university was fully funded by her scholarships.

Which helps only if the student's family has the financial resources to pay for the remaining three years without assistance. Otherwise, the student's freshman year at that "very expensive private university" will be his or her only year!

My son had a very good GPA 3.95 U, 4.3ish weighted, and solid test scores 31 ACT, around 2000 SAT, he was 5th in his class.

My income was JUST too high for need based aid at most schools with an EFC of around 11K as a single parent.

He applied for more than 30 scholarships - every major national scholarship we found out about the ELKs club, Best Buy, Lowes, Ronald McDonald House, BK Scholars, I'm sure there were others...he didn't get a single award.

He applied for some engineering specific awards and did not win any of those either.

He did get substantial merit awards at a couple of the schools he applied to due to his stats.

He also got a few local awards - 1 renewable, 3 just for freshman year for a total of around $7500. All of those he learned about through his school's guidance office.

I would encourage applying for as many awards as you qualify for and although you shouldn't expect to get many, you may get lucky and win a couple, but many you apply for now, you won't learn about until the spring.

But as noted above the most significant awards will come from schools themselves and only if your stats are well above their average or if you demonstrate significant financial need.

Apply to local scholarships--your chances of winning them are much higher than your chances of winning national scholarships.

Also, apply to corporate scholarships--they tend to be generous and (believe it or not) not that competitive. I know a girl from my school who won a $5000 corporate scholarship and she had a 25 ACT and middling grades. Ask your parents if their workplaces give scholarships to dependent children. If so, apply for them.

"Is there any way I can increase my chances for financial aid or scholarships?" - Apply to schools that offer merit scholarships, especially if your family won't qualify for need-based Financial Aid. And by all means make sure your parents (who you say are willing to pay for college) know that it can cost $60K/year.

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